Travel Writing Round Up [February 2011]

If you saw last month’s Travel Writing Round Up, welcome back! There are a lot of great opportunities this month, so I hope you will take full advantage of them. A lot are repeats from last month as well, but new posts are denoted with stars. Do you see any that I missed? Feel free to shoot me an email at caroline@carolineinthecityblog.com.

Paying Markets

Web

Matador Network: As one of the top travel magazines on the web, they’re always looking for content, but they’re pretty picky. Find out what they’re looking for on the Bounty Board or submit your own ideas. If they are interested in your article, you will be compensated with $25. **Matador Nights in particular is looking for stories about dive bars, concerts, etc.

BootsNAll Travel Network: BootsNAll offers writers the chance to get their writing published, even if they don’t get paid, through the Traveler Article program. For features, essays and expert traveler articles, you can be paid between $20-50 for your work.

Do It While You’re Young: This blog is everything a girl needs to know about travel. They are looking for posts in the following areas: Destination Details, Reader Perspective, Hotel Aficionado, Six Months Out and Trip Review. You will be generously compensated with a $5 Amazon gift card per article.

The Travel Belles: This sassy Southern blog is looking for posts ranging in length from 400-1200 words about first-person experiences that don’t sound like they were copy and pasted from a brochure. They pay $10 per article via PayPal.

Travel Generation: This up and coming travel website employs the likes of Adventurous Kate and the folks at Indie Travel Podcast to share their travel experiences for a cool $50 NZD.

*Go Nomad (via Writer’s Weekly): The website needs features and destination guides about places in the United States and South America. They pay $25 for 1500-1700 word articles and pays on publication. They accept reprints. You can check out their writer’s guidelines for more details.

Print

Off Track Planet: Don’t be fooled by the curse words. This travel publication doesn’t follow the typical rules. They’re looking for articles on the best places to hook up in 2011, where to get the most drunk and articles of the sort. Writers will be compensated through the Off Track Planet Stock Option program.

Westjet Up! Magazine: Canadian airline Westjet has a great in-flight magazine that focuses on destinations in North America and the Caribbean. Payment ranges from $150 and up, depending on length. Check out the contributor guidelines for complete details.

Wild Blue Yonder Magazine: Frontier Airlines’ in-flight magazine takes the approach of “true to travel.” They are looking for articles between 200 and 2,000 words for their True Traveler city guides, dining guides, service articles and feature articles.

Delta Sky Magazine: They’re looking for travel and lifestyle & business features ranging from 600-2,000 words. Note that there is a four month lead time for this publication.

Go Magazine: AirTran’s in-flight magazine seeks destination-lead features, 1,200-1,400 words, which highlights a destination that AirTran flies to. They also accept pitches for On the Town, 400-900 word stories about a destination, celebrity cover stories and business stories.

EnRoute Magazine: Air Canada’s in-flight magazine has a variety of sections that freelancers can cover from 500-1500 words. See the website for descriptions of each section. Payment is $1 Canadian per word, with payment upon acceptance.

Unpaid Guest Post Opportunities

Go Backpacking: Although the guest posts are unpaid, they get a lot of page views, since Go Backpacking is one of the top ranking blogs on the web. Plus, you’re in good company with contributors Lindsay Clark of Nomadderwhere and STA Travel Internship and Andi Perullo of My Beautiful Adventures. Oh yeah, and me. They’re looking for 500-800 word posts with images about tips, photo essays and list posts.

Art of Backpacking: I love doing guest posts for Art of Backpacking because I feel like they “get me.” They are looking for posts that follow their philosophy of covering all aspects of backpacking, from relationships to gear reviews to that song you can’t get out of your head from your hostel. Posts must be at least 400 words.

Spunky Girl Monologues: Pam is featuring guest posts for the whole month of January. She’s looking for posts of at least 600 words with images about spunky personal travel stories.

Lost Girls World: The girls’ website has exploded since the release of their book and now is as good a time as ever to write for them. Contributions must be between 500-1,500 words and apply to the mostly female audience of the site. Their posts often get picked up for the Huffington Post and in-flight magazines.

Non-Paying Markets

Web

Oriental Tales Magazine: Submit your 500-2,000 word first person narratives to this online mag, which specializes in all of Asia, from Brunei to Papua New Guinea.

On UR Way Travel: This Aussie-run online travel magazine is looking for 3-4 contributors a month to inspire others to travel. There are also opportunities to contribute to the blog in the World Experiences and Weekly Glimpse sections.

Vagabondish: This offbeat travel zine is looking for writers to cover three sections of the publication: features, which covers how-tos, social commentary, reviews of about 1,000 words; news + sidelines, covering current issues in 200-300 words; and dispatches, focusing on the travel narrative.

Print

S.E.A. Backpacker: This magazine is for backpackers and by backpackers and loves everything about Southeast Asia. You can find copies in hostels throughout Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Bucket-loving writers should submit ideas about destination reviews, backpacker advice, recommended things to do and other topics related to backpacking in Southeast Asia. Compensation is not currently being offered. Contact info@southeastasiabackpacker.com for more information.

Jobs and Internships

*Go Backpacking Feature Blogger: David Lee and his team are looking for a blogger who can commit to at least 6 months of work, writing at least one post per week. This job pays per post, in addition to receiving free membership to Travel Blog Success. The application deadline is soon, so get on it!

Inspiration

“How to Survive a Travel Tweetup,” Art of Backpacking: I love the travel community for so many reasons and these travel tweetups allow me to make friends in every city I visit. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, but you might just leave a tweetup with a new best friend!

Now get writing. **Sorry for the delay in this post! It was all ready to go almost a week ago, but if you haven’t heard, Melbourne had a random flash flood while we were here so I’ve been dealing with flood damage shenanigans. Better luck next month!**

Related

About Caroline

Caroline Eubanks is the founder of Caroline in the City. She's a freelance writer based in Atlanta, Georgia but also considers Charleston and Sydney home. Her past writing credits include work for AFAR.com, National Geographic Travel and she is a contributor to Her Packing List.

Thanks again for including me Caroline! One of the toughest posts I’ve written, but have gotten such great feedback from people it resonated with!

You’re of course welcome to mention me anytime :). A good round-up here and love what you’re doing with this. Glad to see you put in-flight magazines. While they can be difficult to get into, they pay as good or even better than anyone else. Plus, who hasn’t wanted to lean over to their neighbor on a flight and say: “Hey, that’s my article you’re reading”.

Who is Caroline in the City?

Caroline Eubanks is the blogger behind Caroline in the City and a freelance writer. This native Atlantan spent four years at university in Charleston before choosing a life of perpetual travel. After a summer volunteering in Thailand and sailing in Croatia, she made the move to spend a year in Australia. It was there she went bungee jumping, scuba diving and even held a koala.